Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-21
travelling Expense. in Europe.

A good deal is said about relative
prices in England and America, writes
an American from Brighton. Prices
are one thing and expenses are an
other. 1 have been thinking how the
cheap cab system in England really
costs the traveller more than the ex-
pensiye cab system at home.
We hardly ever think OF taking a
cab, and, therefore, ride for five cents !;
whereas the temptation to be going in
cabs all day is strong in these cities.
and the aggregate amounts to more
than the general tourist would think
af. expending in his own country.
You stop at a hotel in some secondary
city and find kind of hearse omni
bus waiting, respectable enough Tor
funeral or for a gentleman's pleasure;
You ride in it and find charged on
ycurat5ill duly 81, whereas the Ameri-
can omnibus carries you to and fro,
for either nothing or so cents.
1.-The constant dropping OF one cab
and picking up another, or going
small distances in cabs, produces
hilli aggregate in the end when one
includes the carelessnesS or Ignorance
about the coinage he is apt to show.
If one has the common sense to ride
third class. especially in Great Britain,
where the journeys are short and the
society OF not much difference in the
three grades, he can dodge the per-
petual guards and porters who are
after the frst-class passengers. The
very color OF your railroad ticket, If
worn in your hat, will indicate to a
guard that you are travelling cheap.
In such case he will probably get
you cab for six-pence and set you
on your way to the hotel within two
minutes after you arrive.
When you come to cross the British
channel anywhere you want to pay
first class fare, and get very little for
that. They have small state rooms
on these swift vessels, and the price
for state room is almost equal to the
whole of the first-class fare between
london and Paris. These state rooms
are built on deck to face outwerd, and
have to be kept closed lest persons
who are walking about stand at win
dows. Unless state room be taken,
however, one has to submit himself to
the cushioned terraces of seats in the
soloon which lie in three and are filled
with baggage often more er less buggy.
The night ride across the channel
changing at midnight and at
early morning, delivers one
up in Paris thoroughly broken to
pieces for any more work that day and
ct only for { % Turkish bath. There
are some other points in favor of the
foreign hotel system, but l never ex
pect to see much OF it introduced into
the United States until the habits OF
the people there become less nomadic
and fugitive. The greatest pains are
taken at the foreign hotels to protect
The guest from intrusion. One thinks
he may have been mistaken for a
prince by the safeguards thrown
around him lest somebody might get
in his way.
In England everything is very clean
at the better class of houses, very
precise, the beds generally good, the
upholstery Of the rooms mixture OF
solidity and good taste But cooking
is not advanced in these kingdoms be-
yond what it was twenty-five years
ago. This is the general opinion OF
foreigners in London who are accus-
toned to continental life. You will
often find travelled Englishman who
himself tells you to go to a German
hotel, and, indeed, the hotels about
London and in most OF the large cit
les, inclusive of the railroad hotels
they are almost always com
mitted in these days to
Germans, who have French and Ital
ian sub-cooks. He who travels il
these countries on the grade he would
do at home as to pay more money
Ten dollars day is close shave fol
one man unattended and alone. He
will not get off at less than $6 between
the depot where he arrives and wher
he shall leave The next morning, il
addition to his railroad fare, which i.
higher than in America, except in the
parliamentary trains. On the othel
hand, he does not have such distances
to 60 in the old world. The multi
plicity OF steamers around the British
islands is certain check to the avarict
OF the railroads. Railway Age.